


Soul for a Soul

by WordsCharacterPlot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Everyone Needs A Hug, F/M, Fix-It, Gen, Not emotionally okay with this death, So I've chosen to ignore it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-09 06:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18632362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsCharacterPlot/pseuds/WordsCharacterPlot
Summary: Do not read if you haven't seen the movie! How the ending should have gone.Being a hero didn't mean you had to sacrifice your life. Being a hero meant living life while protecting others. And sometimes, being a hero meant making sure one more miracle happened.





	Soul for a Soul

Steve Rogers stood on the precipice, hammer in one hand and soul stone in the other. It was the last stone to return. The last piece. Schmidt had floated off to who knows where, unaffected by Steve’s attempt to kill him. In his defense, he hadn't expected the red-faced enemy of his past to offer 'guidance'.

He looked down at the orange glow in his palm, perfectly matching the horizon, the never ending sunset. There was warmth to the glow, a deep feeling of safety, a hug from his mother, Bucky’s hand on his shoulder. The family he had surrounded himself with in the past thirteen years encompassed in that glow.

Clint had told him it was a soul for a soul. Steve hadn’t expressed his thoughts on it. There wasn’t time to think in the battle. But now, as he stood in the shrouded mountain, peering down the edge of an endless abyss, his heart murmured hope. Could it truly be so simple? Could he save one more person?

A soul for a soul.

He dropped the stone like a discarded piece of trash and prayed with all his might. Dear God, let let this work. Watching the stone drop, it grew brighter until blinding light encased him, smothered him, ended him.

He awoke in a pool far from the cliff, hand clasped tightly around something.

Someone.

As if he had pulled her from the cliff himself, there was Nat, wrist in his hand, grasping to save her, to force one more miracle. He couldn’t save Tony, wouldn’t pull him from that rest, but Nat….she spent the last ten years trying to keep the family together. It was someone else's turn to do the job.

“Steve?”

His grin was as bright as the sun after a thunderstorm as she sat up and looked around, confusion and panic etched in her features. 

“We won,” he said, “Time to go home.”

In the end, Natasha didn’t even argue about his choice. She, more than anyone, knew the trials he faced in the modern world, knew the struggles he overcame to simple function at a normal level. He deserved a life. Deserved this life.

They stood outside a London office in 1946. War was over, but there was still so much work to be done.

“You gonna be okay standing on the sidelines?”

He shrugged, “Tony kept saying that time wasn’t so fragile that our interactions in the past would change the future. That this wasn't our past or something. I’ll do what I can. But...rest would be nice.”

A spitfire brunette with bright red lipstick came into view of the window they were outside, yelling at Howard as he took a swig. Natasha smiled. “Rest, Steve. We’ll take care of it.”

He turned to her, sorrow for losing his new family mixed with relief for finding his old, “Take care of Bucky?”

Heat swirled in her chest. She had not a chance to talk with James since his appearance. He wanted space and she gave it to him, but now….Now was an opportunity to find the life Tony had found, the life Steve was leaving them for.

“Of course.”

Steve slipped the time GPS on her hand, offering the last of the Pym Particles, “Your turn.”

Her turn. Her turn for life, for family, for hope. She gave him one last smirk, “Better name a kid after me.”

And in five seconds Steve had disappeared, Natasha Romanoff now stood in his place. The trio stood silent as she looked around, catching Bucky’s eye and grinning. He was the least shocked of the three. After all, he and Steve had talked about it the night before, what he wanted to do, what he hoped he could do. 

It took the better part of an hour to convince him he wasn’t abandoning them. He deserved to be selfish, once in his life. Bucky could manage. He would manage.

Sam stomped off, angry and hurt and confused. Banner was stammering something, but Natalia lithely stepped off the platform and walked to Bucky. He raised an eyebrow. He didn’t know the relationship between her and Banner, but he wasn’t one to step out with another guy’s dame. He’d let Natalia make that choice. The least she deserved from him.

“You send off the punk right?”

She smiled, “He’s with Peggy and the Commandos now. Bet they save you within the year.”

“Told him not to,” he said with a shrug, “Had a dame I wanted to meet.”

She quirked an eyebrow, light dancing in her eyes as Sam called out to him. His call drew Bucky’s gaze to a man sitting on a bench. Of course. Because Steve was a drama queen. He was only mildly aware of Nat going to speak with Banner as Bucky joined Sam.

“Go on,” he nudged. He talked to Steve about this. He knew what was going to happen. Sam was the one he needed to speak to now.

Nat sidled up to him as the mantle of Captain America passed on. “I have a few things to do. You wouldn’t happen to know where I can get a drink after it’s all done?”

“Might have a bottle of Moskovskaya if you’re interested.” A smile tugged at his lips, echoing familiarity playing a drumbeat in his chest. A bottle he found hidden where they left it so many years ago in Russia.

“You’ll wait to open it?”

He grinned at her, “It’s waited this long, it can wait some more.”

She pressed a kiss to his cheek, squeezing his hand before melting into the background, before assuring her new family, his new family as well, that she was here, safe, alive. Sam and Steve were walking up to him now, and a quip about Steve finally looking his age slipped from his lips. Happy couldn’t quite encapsulate the air between them, content perhaps doing the job, but there was a tightness in Sam’s eyes and a sorrow in Bucky’s chest for missing his best friend’s life. Joy mixed with death and lost moments. Bittersweet.

Still, he joined them as they made their way to the house Pepper allowed them to stay in, a ghost of red hair slipping through the doors, and Bucky knew things would get better. They could heal, grieve, move on. A new era was dawning. And Bucky and Natasha and the rest would be there to help the new take over the old. Teach them how to be a hero. Teach them how to make things right.

Above all, teach them how to live.


End file.
